Building the Dream - A TransAtlantic Voyage is a documentary series about
bringing one man's dream 'back to life'. Filmed in a vérité style and narrated by the godfather of world cruising, Jimmy Cornell, Building The Dream is a rollicking ride, with all of the grit and drama of battling a storm on the high seas - and that's before the boat even sets sail.
A group of friends, advisors, sailing enthusiasts and marine-shops are building 35 ft. sailboat for a 2010 sail across the Atlantic and the series follows the building process from scratch, installing the hardware and the equipment, performing 'non-compromise' sea trials and ultimately sailing the North Route across the Atlantic to the Adriatic Sea.
HIGH SEAS TV IS A MEMBER OF WHALEFORCE - COCHRANE ECOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
THE PROJECT HISTORY:
A few years ago, Toronto based producer and sailor Alen Milic was working on the re-build of a friend's sailboat, and wishing that he had one as his own rebuild project. While searching for parts online, he came across the following ad:
Aluminum sailboat - FREE Partially finished aluminum sailboat + trailer to the right person for free. I'd like to see my grandfather's dream come true in some way. All I want in return is a picture of the finished boat.
Alen replied to the ad, saying that he could try finish the build and would film the process. A few weeks later he received the following response:
Hi Alen, I had an overwhelming response to my ad, but you seem like the kind of person that could bring this dream back to life. So if you are still interested, she is yours...
A classic case of serendipity? Or the old cliché, be careful what you wish for? Only time will tell...
JANUARY 10th 2010 - TORONTO INTERNATIONAL BOAT SHOW
Alen attended the Toronto International Boat Show and had a chance to meet with Paul Hrabowsky from Ocean Sailing Enterprises from Vancouver. They are the exclusive distributors for Quick and Bamar furling gear. Alen also made further plans for finishing the work on Julius with Mike and Mikaela from Bennett Custom Canvas (custom dodger fabricateors), John McComb (painting), and Barry from Espar (diesel heater).
NOVEMBER 10th 2009 - THE RUDDER SHAFT
The last element for the underwater part of the hull was to fabricate the tube for the prop shaft. The prop shaft connects the engine with the propeller and passes through the hull via the prop shaft tube. Since we are using a FlexiFold 3 bladed folding propeller, the shaft tube had to be a bit shorter to allow free folding of the prop when not in use. This part of the boat is exposed to vibrations, so we went with a bit oversized tube and reinforced the hull skin around the shaft tube. Welding the whole assembly needed a lot of preheating to achieve solid welds with no porosity. Next we will be mounting the engine and assembling the prop shaft and the prop.
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NOVEMBER 1st 2009 - THE SKEG
Most modern production fin-keel boats have a spade rudder, which extends straight down from the aft hull section. The rudder post comes down through the hull into the rudder itself, allowing the entire rudder to rotate to either side, pivoting around the post. A spade rudder is more vulnerable to debris or objects in the water, which may strike the rudder and exert force on the rudder post, the only structure supporting the whole rudder. That's why we fabricated the older style - the Skeg - a better and stronger solution for cruising sailboats. A fixed frame welded to the hull extends all the way to the bottom of the rudder where a teflon bearing connects to it with the rudder. It is made in a way similar to fabricating the rudder - 2 skin sheets are very carefully welded to the frame to avoid any bending and to keep it perfectly aligned with the rudder. Chris Giraudy accomplished this delicate welding and fabricating task, and all ended up perfectly straight and aligned.
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SEPTEMBER 20th 2009 - THE RUDDER
Almost a month was wasted on reinforcing the bent cradle and getting SeaRover back under the roof of Appleby Marine. The next task: building the rudder. The frame for the rudder on the SeaRover is made of the rudder shaft, turned from solid aluminum rod, 8 ribs, the trailing edge bar. First all elements are assembled on a plywood sheet, measured and marked to the right position and angle. After the rudder frame elements were welded together, two sheets of 3/8" aluminum were cut and welded to the frame to make the 'skin' of the rudder. It was easy to weld one sheet, but the second one had to be plug-welded. That involves cutting openings on the sides and welding from the outside to connect the skin to the rudder. Preheating and careful welding is needed to avoid any bending and to keep the rudder straight and perfectly symmetrical.
